GSoC 2026: Join the Processing Foundation as a Summer of Code Contributor!

Summer of Code
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Hi everyone :sunflower:

If you’re interested in working on a project with Processing Foundation for the next GSoC, read on! I will keep updating this post with the most important info. If the thread gets long, you can still come back and check in this post for the most important updates.

Key Dates for Application

  • The deadlines for GSoC 2026 have been announced, and Processing Foundation has been accepted as a mentor org :tada: The applications will open on March 15th; for now, contributor applications are not open yet, but you can already get started. Here is the 2026 project ideas list - the rest of the wiki is also a very useful resource to look through!

  • Individual feedback: sign-up sheet to get individual feedback on project ideas will open March 15th. To sign up, you will need to provide information about your proposal inside a form. It will be first-come first-served, so you can start preparing your own notes on your proposed idea, including possible timeline (how you will use the total project hours and weekly work). Org admin(s) or mentor(s) will provide individual feedback at least once to all requests before March 22nd, first-come first-serve. After 22nd, or for multiple rounds of feedback, we will do our best but it will depend on availability. This means that the most important thing before March 15th is to do the research and reflection suggested above, so that you are ready to get a round of feedback.

  • Application deadline is March 31st. Then all applications will be reviewed by mentors and org admins. Here is a summary of how proposals were evaluated last year, though keep in mind that this yeah we are welcoming custom projects.

Application Preparation Checklist

Applications will open on March 15th. Before then, we will also post a template on the wiki. Until then, here is a checklist of how you can already start preparing our application.

  • Have a look around which project you’d most want to work on. Current project ideas indicate important areas of work across p5.js Web Editor, p5.js JavaScript library, p5.js Reference Website, Processing4 Java library, and a new implementation of Processing/p5 in Lua, L5. The L5 project also has a dedicated section on this Discord. Consider which technologies you’re most interested to work on, and what kind of impact you’d want your project to have on the Processing/p5 community of learners, teachers, artists, and creators!
  • Be sure to explore one of these tools as a user, first - if you are not already making public p5.js or Processing sketches regularly, be sure to make a few and reflect on the experience! Knowing the tool well yourself is really important for writing a successful feature proposal. If these explorations are public - in your personal GitHub account, a personal website/portfolio, on p5.js web editor, or on OpenProcessing - they will support your application
  • Say hello on Discord! Both processing and p5.js servers have events coming up for contributor topics, so you are also welcome there.
  • Review the 2026 project ideas list and use these as a starting point for generating your own ideas or interpretations. This year, we encourage 175Hour projects of medium difficulty (exceptions are possible, but have to be well-explained).
  • Review issue backlogs in the repositories for the projects you’re interested in to check if similar proposals have been discussed in the past, and what the outcome was. Use the search features in GitHub to also find closed issues or PRs, and avoid proposing duplicate work.
  • Merged GitHub PRs are not required, and if you make Pull Requests on GitHub, ensure they follow contributor guidelines. You can look for “Good First Issues” on individual repositories. Before making any PR, please be sure to read the contributor guidelines carefully. PRs (and other activity in online community spaces) that consistently ignore contribution and community guidelines can actually make your proposal less likely to succeed.
  • If you don’t see code that’s ready for work, look for other ways to be helpful in the community. That includes helping answer questions in this Discourse thread - which will get long - so if you monitor for newcomers asking questions that have been answered, you can jump in! There are also other Processing/p5.js online community spaces where you offer your ideas and skills, and these would all support your application as much as PRs.
  • Reflect on the mission of Processing Foundation and the ethos of open source. What are the biggest motivations you have for being interested in open source? Reflect on open source software and community-maintained resources - outside of Processing or p5.js - that you use. If you’re not sure which of the software you use is open source, dig into whatever you use to find if it relies on open source work!
  • Reflect on how p5.js or Processing shows up in your life. How do you describe what you make with p5.js and Processing? What other creators inspire or challenge you most? Why do you make art with code?
  • Try out at least one community-created library in p5 or in Processing4 and reflect on this experience.

As in the previous year, any questions that you have about the process - please ask them here! All public questions will be answered. I’ll be back here every couple of weeks, and much more frequently (just like last year) during the application process!

Best,
Kit (PF GSoC org admin for 2025, 2026)

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Looking at the past programs I see that most projects aim to contribute towards the p5.js project, are there any plans for the processing project itself or for the new libprocessing project that is being implemented in Rust joining the GSoC project roster?

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Hi @bakayu ! Thanks for the question.

We will be posting an updated ideas list soon, but it’s not finalized yet. Although last year’s projects were about p5.js, the ideas list included Processing projects as well. The ideas list depends on the interests of the mentors, and on what work is possible that is not overlapping too much with other ongoing work (ideally, projects can be relatively independent, and not blocked by other work).

This year, unlike last year, we will welcome custom project proposals. So the ideas list will be there as a starting point, but it would not be meant as a limitation.

By the time we submit our org application (start of Feb 2026), the ideas list will be ready, and I’ll post here.

EDIT: Here is the 2026 ideas list and additional process info

-Kit

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Hi Kit,

For someone preparing early for GSoC 2026, would you recommend starting with a specific repository (p5.js, p5.js Editor, Processing4, or p5.js-website), or is it better to let the choice be driven entirely by the proposal idea?

I want to make sure early exploration aligns well with how mentors later evaluate proposals

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Hi @agastya , welcome!

I’d suggest starting with the project that most resonates with your technical skills or interests. Each of the above have different stacks. Also, depending on if you are using mostly p5.js or Processing, you might be more interested in one or the other! If you use both, I’d suggest checking out p5.js mode in PDE which is a recent and really interesting project. Or if you’re interested in sound, then perhaps p5.sound.js; last year’s sound project idea was unfortunately not one of the ones that got a slot, but something related to sound will be on the list.

The project list will be published soon (next week latest). It will describe areas of current interest across multiple projects. Creative interpretations of those project ideas are welcome! For now the best way to prepare before the list is public is to reflect on which projects have technologies you’d most want to work with.

I hope this helps!
Best,
Kit

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Hii @kit, thanks a lot for the detailed updates - this is really helpful.

I’m preparing early for GSoC 2026 and wanted to sanity-check an idea before the official project list is published. My background is mainly front end, web, and after spending time exploring the Processing Foundation websites, I’ve been looking into a potential project around front end maintainability, accessibility and theme hardening - things like componentization of repeated UI patterns, improving long-form readability and laying proper groundwork for theme support (without redesigning or changing the visual identity).

I hope custom project proposals are welcome this year, so my question is mainly about fit and process: would it make sense to keep refining this idea and contributing small fixes in the meantime, and then formally pitch it once the applications open - assuming it aligns with mentor interest and doesn’t overlap with ongoing work?

Happy to adapt scope or direction based on what the mentors feel is most valuable. Just wanted to check whether this is a reasonable direction to explore further at this stage.

Thanks again for coordinating all of this - really appreciate it.

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Hi Kit! Thanks for the update :sunflower:

I’ve been contributing recently (p5.js WebGL + docs) and was wondering if there are any areas or types of issues you’d recommend focusing on right now in p5.js or p5.js-website. Happy to help wherever it’s most useful.

Thanks!

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Hi @Samarth and @aash.u7707 , thanks for your thoughtful questions!

Also, as an update: we have submitted the org application, and we will know if we are participating by Feb 18th. We’ve also added some more notes on process and timeline here.

Now, the questions!

@Samarth asks:

I hope custom project proposals are welcome this year

Yes, they are!

I’m preparing early for GSoC 2026 and wanted to sanity-check an idea before the official project list is published.

With regard to front-end hardening, I think either the p5.js website or the p5.js editor would be good projects to consider. We do have the ideas list published now, but this year we are definitely happy to receive custom project proposals, and the ideas list is intended to help understand major open areas of work. There are two project directions there (translation process on website and e2e tests on editor) that might be interesting to look into - they both have some background info links.

If you’re interested in working on small fixes on the website: there is an accessibility steward (gh/@coseeian) who has been filing accessibility issues using the below labels - if this is of interest, you could also work on some of these. Typically, @coseeian makes “High Severity” fixes themselves, but the others tend to be open. You can also check out merged/closed issues with these labels for ideas. Although @coseeian is not a GSoC mentor, they are happy to steward contributors on the accessibility topics, and it might be a good place to get inspired about website improvements, esp maintainability and theme hardening.

I’ll also ping the related mentors to comment about fit, and open work on the editor you could try out; Claire Peng (mentor for e2e idea) was also interested in supporting e2e testing for the website (#827) and is more familiar with current Editor work than I am. If this particular area is of interest I can also coordinate with @coseeian about ongoing work to check where there’s no overlaps and a good fit.

@aash.u7707 asks:

I’ve been contributing recently (p5.js WebGL + docs) and was wondering if there are any areas or types of issues you’d recommend focusing on right now in p5.js or p5.js-website. Happy to help wherever it’s most useful.

Awesome, thank you! Documentation improvements are always appreciated and a great place to start. Additionally, if you’re not already on the Discord, it might be useful to monitor the contribute channel and help review tasks that you have familiarity with. Review and feedback are extremely important parts of the contributor process.

We do not require PRs in GSoC applications, though they are welcome; we also welcome evidence of contribution and community participation through:

  1. helpful, friendly, and technically thorough feedback in others’ PRs (when it’s in a technical topic you’re familiar with) is an extremely strong, positive part of an application. This is probably the most helpful thing, as you can see there are many PRs and longer wait times for review when too few people are able to review. Carefully picking PRs you have the technical knowledge to review and leaving a helpful comment is great, and helps make the overall development process a bit smoother for everyone!
  2. testing release candidates. Both for p5.js 1.x and 2.x, you can check releases page and looks for “x.y.z-rc.x” versions that are ready for testing. Particularly noting the change-log and testing the areas affected, then filing issues reporting any bugs you find. Finding an obscure bugs in a release candidate is extremely appreciated!

Even if you’re new to the community, if you’re familiar with some specific part of p5.js, I want to encourage you to get involved in all the different parts of open source development - which is definitely not limited to writing code / making PRs.

General note about github comments, reviews, and PRs

A general reminder for everyone reading, because I mentioned reviews and comments as an important form of contribution: fully or largely AI-generated PRs may be closed, and are not in line with the AI usage policy. The same goes for issue comments or PR reviews - please do not over-rely on LLMs. This defeats the purpose of multiple perspectives during discussion or review. Comments that appear to overuse AI and do not add to the discussion may be hidden or marked as spam. I know there are different policies in different orgs, and I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have about this.

I’ll be back on this thread every few days (more frequently if we are accepted into GSoC) to answer your questions as well as I can.

Best,
Kit

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Hi Samarth,
I’m the mentor for one of the proposed projects (E2E tests for the p5.js web editor)

While contributions to the Processing repos is not necessary for your application, I would recommend getting a feel for the repos for the potential projects so that you can assess which one feels the most interesting/fun/familiar to work on! For me, that usually means creating a fork and playing with things locally to get a feel for the codebase, and maybe seeing if I can resolve any of the “good first issue” locally.

I think in terms of approachability for a JS/TS dev, the documentation sites would have the more modern, youtube-able stacks. The p5.js web editor repo is a bit more antequated.

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Hi! I’m less familiar with plans for the p5.js documentation site, and the p5.js library, but for p5.js web editor, we would love contributions to add tests!

There are some plans for ongoing refactor work, especially in the frontend, so unit tests for individual components would be great to help secure existing behaviour. There’s an awesome guide written at p5.js-web-editor/contributor_docs/testing.md at develop · processing/p5.js-web-editor · GitHub

If you have any Typescript exp, contributions to the TS migration would be great too! Smaller PRs for individual components would be preferred so that they’re easier for reviewers to look through. Please don’t hesitate to tag me if you have any other q’s!

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Thanks! I have already contributed to p5.js core and the website recently, and I will take a look at the testing guide and see if there’s a small, well-scoped component I can help add unit tests for. :slightly_smiling_face:

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@kit Thanks for the confirmation and the info provided! Rooting for processing foundation to get into GSoC this year too.

@clairep94 With work experience in full stack, mainly typescript, I would love to take on the TS migrations, I am currently looking out for the migration issues that are currently open in the repo, but would be great if you provide specific issues you are looking to get solved.

Again, thanks for support and clarification.

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Hi @kit,
I have added some new accessibility features (which are in my local system right now), and there isn’t an issue with that. I had a short email conversaion with one of the maintainer: Mr. Divyansh Srivastava. I wanted to ask if hello@processing.org is still the correct email address or the correct way to discuss the potential contribution method.

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Hi @aashishpanthi , thanks for your enthusiasm, excited to learn more about the features you’ve worked on. I try to answer your question below:

  1. If you have a major new feature proposal, you could apply with that for GSoC (it is still not confirmed) but keep in mind that the project must be completed during the program, not before. If it is already finished, then the proposal has to cover extension. However for adding new features, issue(s) and community discussion is necessary. Outside of GSoC, you could open an issue explaining your feature and inviting feedback. Please do not make a PR without an issue that has been approved and assigned (if you’re not sure about the process, I recommend reading the Contributor Guidelines.
  2. The email hello@procesing.org goes to people working on Processing4 Java and the Processing Development Environment (PDE). For p5.js library, the p5.js reference site, and the p5.js web editor, the email is hello@p5js.org. However, please note that if you send a feature proposal via email that is not related to any existing work, feedback may be slow.
  3. For contribution, I really recommend looking at what is already open, and helping to review and go through the backlog. There are various issues related to accessibility on the different repositories, maybe you could look into whether there are discussions relevant to your interests that you could participate in?

Note about github comments, reviews, and PRs

(Repeating for visibility) A general reminder for everyone reading, because I mentioned reviews and comments as an important form of contribution: fully or largely AI-generated PRs may be closed, and are not in line with the AI usage policy. The same goes for issue comments or PR reviews - please do not over-rely on LLMs. This defeats the purpose of multiple perspectives during discussion or review. Comments that appear to overuse AI and do not add to the discussion may be hidden or marked as spam. I know there are different policies in different orgs, and I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have about this.

I’ll be back on this thread every few days (more frequently if we are accepted into GSoC) to answer your questions as well as I can.

Best,
Kit

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Contributing to the processing ecosystem has honestly been a really rewarding journey for me. I have tried to stay consistent and focus on making meaningful contributions wherever I could, whether it was fixing issues, improving things, or helping in discussions, being a part of the community and learning through the process has meant a lot to me. I would genuinely love the opportunity to continue building on this work through GSoC and contribute at an even deeper level.

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Thank you for your very helpful response. After your reply, I had an email conversation with Rachel, and I’ve opened two issues and two pull requests in both p5.js and p5.js-web-editor.

The contribution docs are very long. It will take me more time to translate. For now, can you please review my two pull requests that are currently open?

Thank you.

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@kit is there any community meet going to happen in between the project discussion period of GSoC 2026? I would love to connect and discuss about the projects, Btw I’m interested in the P5.js editor project (E2E Testing for the p5.js Web Editor).

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I’m excited to see the ideas out. I’ll be diving into the Translation Tracker direction over the next few days and looking forward to the discussions around it :slight_smile:

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Hello @kit @clairep94, I am elated to see that processing foundation is participating and is listed in the org list of this year’s GSoC.
@clairep94 I am looking to contribute to the e2e testing idea form the idea list. I’ll be drafting a proposal, if you’d help me refine it, it will be highly appreciated.

Thanks and kudos!

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